The Influence of Different Kinds of Incentives on Decision-Making and Cognitive Control in Adolescent Development: A Review of Behavioral and Neuroscientific Studies

Abstract

A number of recent hypothetical models on adolescent development take a dual-systems perspective and propose an imbalance in the maturation of neural systems underlying reward-driven and control-related behavior. In particular, such models suggest that the relative dominance of the early emerging subcortical reward system over the later emerging prefrontal-guided control system leads to higher risk-taking and sensation-seeking behavior in mid-adolescents. Here, we will review recent empirical evidence from behavioral and neuroscientific studies examining interactions between these systems and showing that empirical evidence in support for the view of a higher sensitivity to rewards in mid-adolescents is rather mixed. One possible explanation for this may be the use of different kinds and amounts of incentives across studies. We will therefore include developmental studies comparing the differential influence of primary and secondary incentives, as well as those investigating within the class of secondary incentives the effects of monetary, cognitive, or social incentives. We hypothesized that the value of receiving sweets or sours, winning or losing small or large amounts of money, and being accepted or rejected from a peer group may also changes across development, and thereby might modulate age differences in decision-making and cognitive control. Our review revealed that although developmental studies directly comparing different kinds of incentives are rather scarce, results of various studies rather consistently showed only minor age differences in the impact of incentives on the behavioral level. In tendency, adolescents were more sensitive to higher amounts of incentives and larger uncertainty of receiving them, as well as to social incentives such as the presence of peers observing them. Electrophysiological studies showed that processing efficiency was enhanced during anticipation of incentives and receiving them, irrespective of incentive type. Again, we found no strong evidence for interactions with age across studies. Finally, functional brain imaging studies revealed evidence for overlapping brain regions activated during processing of primary and secondary incentives, as well as social and non-social incentives. Adolescents recruited similar reward-related and control-related brain regions as adults did, but to a different degree. Implications for future research will be discussed.

Are Mid-Adolescents Prone to Risky Decisions? The Influence of Task Setting and Individual Differences in Temperament

“…Hence, in line with a recent review, a “hot” context, like when high incentive values are given, more consistently provoke an adolescent-specific reaction (cf. Kray et al, 2018). Moreover, van den Bos and Hertwig (2017) showed an inverted U shape in risk propensities for gain gambles under known risk across adolescence but also used a higher variability in incentive values (from 3€ to 32€) than we offered in the THT (2€, 3€, or 5€).…”

“…Nonetheless, most findings in the adolescent literature are limited to gains, even though social contexts have been shown to have a high impact on decision-making in adolescence, with only few decision-making tasks being investigated under social context manipulations so far. In sum, one should consider the age-specific relevance of different kinds of contexts and incentives when exploring the impact of reward/punishment sensitivity on risk-taking behavior from childhood to adulthood (see Kray et al, 2018 for a review).…”

“…In addition, it has been argued that the most salient types of rewards in adolescence are in the social domain (social feedback like being admired, included, or excluded, or positive and negative emotions; Crone and Dahl, 2012). In support of this view, social contexts like peer presence have been shown to have an age-differential effect, with adolescents taking more risks in these situations than other age groups (for a review see Kray et al, 2018). Correspondingly, adolescence is thought as a period of heightened social–affective engagement and sensitivity (Crone and Dahl, 2012) that might promote empathic responses (Blakemore and Mills, 2014) and, thus, the gradual development of empathic skills over the course of adolescence (e.g., Allemand et al, 2015).…”

“…Especially, adolescents are thought to be biased by the hyperactive socioemotional system to pursue the potentially most rewarding choice (Casey et al, 2008; Steinberg, 2008; Ernst, 2014; Luna and Wright, 2016). However, most findings in the developmental decision-making literature are limited to the effects of different kinds and degrees of gains, while the investigation of the impact of negative outcomes (losses) has been neglected (Kray et al, 2018). This is somewhat surprising, as according to the influential prospect theory (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979), risky decision-making differs depending on whether positive (gains) or negative outcomes (losses) can be expected.…”

“…So far, most studies rely on one task setting and a comparison of two or three age groups, which does not allow to draw conclusions about differential influences of task contexts on age differences in the transition from childhood to adulthood (cf. Defoe et al, 2015; Kray et al, 2018).…”